The present invention relates generally to computer security and, more particularly, to a power management system for a random number generator.
Random number generator circuits are used in a variety of electronic applications. One important application for random number generators is in the field of computer security where messages are encrypted and decrypted. Cryptography involves the transformation of data into a coded message that is sent to and decoded only by the intended recipient. Most common cryptographic techniques use ciphers (or xe2x80x9ckeysxe2x80x9d) used by the sender to encode the message, and by the receiver to decode the encoded message. Common cipher systems use either a single key to code and decode a message, or two keys, one to encode the message and the other to decode the message.
The keys used to encode and decode messages are binary data patterns against which a message is processed or filtered. Effective cipher systems require the use of keys that have a sufficiently high number of bits to make replication through brute force search strategies of a key nearly impossible. Furthermore, the data patterns comprising the keys must be sufficiently random so that their pattern or the patterns in the message encoded by the key cannot be predicted any better than chance guessing. Effective cryptographic systems thus require the use of high quality random number generators to ensure that the binary data within a message is transformed in a totally unpredictable manner.
Present known random number generators present certain disadvantages. One disadvantage relates to power consumption. Random number generators contain subsystems that require substantial amounts of energy, irrespective of their operational state. The large amount of energy consumed could create problems especially for handheld or portable devices.